Absolutely. Sure. Possible. Unlikely.

June 20, 2013

The Morning Heresy is your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.

I've been on "vacation." If you've ever travelled with two small children, you know why the quotation marks are there.

Lauren and Ed did a fantastic job keeping up the Heresy while I was away, and I can't thank them enough. I mean, I didn't read it or anything, but I'm presuming.

Alan Chambers of Exodus International, a pray-the-gay-away ministry, apologizes for all he's done:

Please know that I am deeply sorry. I am sorry for the pain and hurt many of you have experienced. I am sorry that some of you spent years working through the shame and guilt you felt when your attractions didn’t change. . . . More than anything, I am sorry that so many have interpreted this religious rejection by Christians as God’s rejection.

While I've been slacking off, Ben Radford has been busy: He gets quoted in Slate on The Secret ("old wine in new bottles), in HuffPo on psychic detectives ("consistently failed"), pulled from his Discovery piece on a blown massacre prediction that wound up costing the seer $7,000,000 in damages.

Gasp! Famous scientists were imperfect humans! Learn about big screwups from Darwin, Einstein, and others in the latest Point of Inquirywith guest Mario Livio.

In our Point of Inquiry weekly wrapup, we have the rare occurrence of Daniel Dennett speaking in short bursts. Asked about the possibility of articificial intelligence, Dennett says: "Absolutely. Sure. Possible. Unlikely, very unlikely."

Heather Long, on the coming SCOTUS decision on prayer in legislative bodies, says, "Simply striking it entirely from our legislatures doesn't honor the many faith traditions who have come to this nation seeking religious freedom." Not that honoring faith traditions is the job of legislatures, but, whatever.

Like conventional therapies, alternative remedies shouldn't be given a free pass. They should be held to the same high standards of safety and efficacy. And where scientific studies don't exist, we should insist that they be performed. Otherwise, we'll continue to be susceptible to the worst kinds of quackery.

This is what always happens. The moral advance comes first, triumphing over ferocious religious opposition, and then when enough time has passed for memories to fade a little, religion is given the credit for it

Joseph L. Conn at AU is troubled by the president's choice of ambassador to the Vatican:

Once again, the president has felt obligated to name not only a Catholic, but one who meets the approval of conservative factions within the Roman Catholic Church.

Our role as Americans, whether Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, Atheists or anything else, is to uphold the values of religious tolerance and freedom of expression not only in our own country but everywhere in the world. Can we set aside our complacency and rise to the challenge?

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Linking to a story or webpage does not imply endorsement by Paul, Ed, Lauren, anyone who can fire them, or CFI. Not every use of quotation marks is ironic or sarcastic, but it often is.

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Paul Fidalgo has been communications director of the Center for Inquiry since 2012. He holds a master’s degree in political management from George Washington University, and has worked previously for FairVote: The Center for Voting and Democracy and the Secular Coalition for America. Paul is also an actor and musician whose work includes five years performing with the American Shakespeare Center. He lives in Maine with his wife and kids. His blog at the Patheos network is iMortal, and he tweets at @paulfidalgo.